Nostril-borne lightup draft-sensor jacklanterns your schnozz when you breathe

Noda Akira married a draft-sensor to a blue LED and miniaturized the package so that it would fit in his nostril. The result is a nasal prosthesis that lights up his nostril with eerie blue light every time he breathes through his nose.

Draft-Sensing Noselight Glows When You Breathe

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: fashion • Funny • happy mutants • health • Japan • maker • video • Weird • youtube

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SoItBegins

This is going to become the hot new accessory at parties, isn’t it.
- Just_Ok
  
  no, it’ snot
http://www.mrericsir.com MrEricSir

AaahCHOOO!

“Oops, where’d it go?”
- Benzene
  
  ‘snot funny.
George Michaelson

A colleague has a party trick of inserting a mini-maglite into one nostril, turning it on, and then singing “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” with … a glowing red nose…
rattypilgrim

Seems like a nice accessory to the brain eating worms in Louisiana.
eryximachus

I could use one of these.

I am intending to dress up as Mr. Tulip for the next -ing Halloween.
neurolux

unuseless
silly bobs

stick a mag light up to your soft palate, turn off the lights – demon eyes!
xgad

Fun with noses!
- Halloween Jack
  
  One of the first things that I thought of.
Rks1157

Anyone know know what the subtitles say?
- guanto
  
  They just explain what you see in the video, i.e. what that thing is and does, followed by a description of the individual components.
  Mundane stuff really, not worth translating.
  - Rks1157
    
    Thanks. I was wondering if I was missing something, like why?
- Mujokan
  
  Yes, they say:
  
  鼻ホタル
  鼻息で光る
  鼻ホタルは吐息を感じて光ります
  鼻につっこむだけの簡単装着
  鼻ホタルで
  素敵な鼻息ライフを
  仕組み
  温度センサーで鼻息を検知します
  センサーは秋月のS-8120C基板です
  ローパス＆微分＆増幅回路
  コンデンサは積層セラミック、トランジスタは２SC271です
  マイコンでLEDを制御
  ATTｉｎｙ１０でヒステリシスコンパレータ＋LED調光をおこなっていむす
  電池ホルダは真鍮線
  Φ０．９ｍｍの真鍮線で作成し、エポキシ接着剤で固めています　（１０ｘ１０ｘ８ｍｍ）
  おまけ
  心拍を可視化するHeartCap mini
  ２００７年製　２５ｘ２５ｘ７ｍｍ
  一緒に使うと
  割と　せわしないです
  - Rks1157
    
    Thanks Mujokan!
http://thelizardman.com The Lizardman

Reminds me of the human spotlight: a sideshow act performed by myself and a few others where a small bulb on a wire is inserted into the nose, down the back of the throat, and into the mouth. A crystal ball is held in the mouth focusing the light into a beam. You don’t see it very often because it is very lighting dependent (has to be very dark) and it doesn’t get that great a response from most audiences. During the insertion you would normally pause to light up the nose, then the eye socket. With a strong enough bulb and dark enough room you could also push it down the back of the throat to light up the adams apple region. One south american performer would run it all the way down to the stomach and get a faint glow in his belly but it required pitch blackness, a powerful bulb, and again tended to get lackluster responses compared to other acts.
igpajo

Am I weird if I ask “Why?”
Ness Creighton

Seems to me theres a very clear use. You could easily attach such a device to be used in respirators and other breath assisting devices. Even better? Need to know if someone is breathing right as a first respondier? Stick one of these up their nose. Easy to monitor breathing depth and regularity.
- Smash Martian
  
  >Need to know if someone is breathing right as a first respondier? Stick one of these up their nose.
  
  A cheap harmonica can be utilised to provide similar audible feedback.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Wouldn’t it be easier to use your burnished vambrace?
    - Smash Martian
      
      Absolutely, if you didn’t mind going without the jaunty-yet-soulful soundtrack and funky lightshow that several harmonica & nasal jack o’lantern equipped patients would provide.
- Jay Song
  
  I’m a nursing student and find measuring respiration rates difficult. A device like this coule be useful.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    I’m a nursing student and find measuring respiration rates difficult. A device like this coule be useful.
    
    Do what they do at Kaiser. Just put down 20. Every time that I have an appointment, they just put down 20 even though my RR is never more than 12 and usually six to eight. I guess that I just look like a “20″.
Warren_Terra

“jacklanterns”? “jack’o'lanterns”? “jackolanterns”?
Just_Ok

We all had these back when I was in the US Nasal Service.
digi_owl

What is it with the japanese being so reserved and so outrageous at the same time?
- Jerril
  
  The nation that invented the “kancho” and unleashed it among children is not “reserved”. They’re just “the quiet one that nobody ever expected”.
http://echofox3.blogspot.com efergus3

Finally – a solution to Global Warming! No, wait, what? Up the nose? Now that’s just silly.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1068212091 Dylan Boyce

If you put it up your arse in reverse people would know when you fart.
Halloween Jack

This would be such a great thing to play with on the subway or some other form of public transportation. Too bad it’s too close to Christmas to ship.
http://twitter.com/Brokenpavement tonymaas

At Last!
http://www.facebook.com/slindsey Scott Lindsey

I never thought the future would arrive so soon.
Mujokan

“suteki na hanaiki raifu” — This kind of thing is why I love Japanese so much. Very hard to translate.

BTW hotaru is a firefly… I once went to a “firefly viewing” in the grounds of a temple where the people outnumbered the fireflies probably 3000 to one.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Sparg-Otyebat/1818893984 Sparg Otyebat
  
  I’d probably prefer my backyard during a Midwestern summer where the lightning bugs outnumber me 3000:1, with the cicada drone in the background.
GawainLavers

I confess to reading the headline about four times trying to get my head around what the medical application was.
Rheinhard

Why am I reminded of the line from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “Do people want fire that can be fitted nasally?”
ROSSINDETROIT

Why blue? I’d want red, and I’d want it to light up when I exhale. Consider the possibilities with a cigarette.
snagglepuss

If that gadget doesn’t become the absolute textbook definition of “Desperate Last-Minute Christmas Gift”, then I don’t know what will.
fight4paece

Question. How does one make such a device non-toxic? If he used lead solder he could be snorting lead oxide with every breath.
altert

I’d say this is appropriate video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0gzQS4w1sc